Studies are now revealing that our automated lifestyles are leading directly to a lot more physical and psychological troubles – things like body pain, eyesight impairment, hypertension, obesity, depression and anti-social behaviour.

I often spend 6 or more hours a day in front of my computer myself, so I have no trouble relating to the physical strain. Neck pain and shoulder tension are a new part of my own reality too.

But fortunately I have yoga to thank for helping me to cope and to maintain a functional level of health and sanity through all the work I do online.

Yoga Bhavana

If you do yoga, then you know that there’s a lot exercises that help manage stress on the body and mind … but alone they are not enough.

WHY?

Human nature. Most people will only go to their doctor for advice after they become sick … and most people will only look toward something like yoga when they’re feeling less than healthy.

The problem is that once the stress is back down to a manageable level, or the body pain has gotten better, folks often stop doing yoga … until the neck pain comes back or the stress level gets out of control again.

If we want permanent relief though, then we need to get at the root of the troubles, and that’s where embracing some yogic attitudes (Yoga Bhavana) along with the exercises will help.

You’re Not Important

I’m sorry to break the news to you, but you are not as important as you think you are. Don’t feel bad though. Nobody else is either!

I know some of you will disagree. You’ll say “what about someone like Albert Einstein? Where would we be today without his contribution?”

But we only think this way because we keep viewing ourselves as separate individuals, each with our own unique intelligence … instead of remembering what we really are, which is just a tiny part of the collective, universal intelligence.

This means that we do not have any potential within us, as an individual, that is not simply just as small part of the infinite potential within all of us!

The Sanskrit term Adhi-Vyadhi reflects this. Adhi-Vyadhi is the principle that the lower (or individual consciousness) is a mirror of the higher (or Universe consciousness). This truth is even echoed in the Bible …

“AS ABOVE, SO BELOW …”

This realization of the ‘Unity of our Nature’ allows us to detach ourselves from our successes and our failures. That detachment is called vairagya. It reminds me that any successes I have had have not come from me … they have only come ‘through me.’

Remembering that we are all together in this life, and not individuals struggling to ‘achieve something’ in competition with each other … all that pressure instantly disappears.

As Dr. Swami Gitananda Giri used to say, “do your best and leave the rest.” (to God). This realization is really ALL WE NEED to live a happy, harmonious, and stress-free life, isn’t it?